Friday and Saturday were about as perfect a pair of games as the baseball team could have asked for. Gabe Cohen had a pair of home runs in No. 22 UCLA’s 13-6 win over Cal on Friday, and Cody Decker went yard twice on Saturday to lead his team to a 7-2 win.
And then Sunday, the Bears struck back.
Cal (24-24, 8-10 Pac-10) got to the UCLA (27-19, 12-3) pitching staff for 16 runs on 20 hits, and silenced the UCLA bats, avoiding the sweep with a 16-0 win.
“It would have been nice (to sweep),” coach John Savage said. “When you win two out of three you’ve got to be happy, (but) the only thing is that when you lose on Sunday you feel like you lost the series. And in reality you haven’t.”
Taking the series two games to one, the Bruins remain at the top of the Pac-10, one game ahead of Arizona State, who did not play this weekend.
On Friday night the Bruins were strong on the mound and at the plate. Staff ace Tyson Brummett (9-4) continued rolling, getting his sixth win in as many starts. Brummett gave up five runs in 6.2 innings, and got enough run support to control the game.
At the plate, Cohen’s two homers were just a part of his 4-5, three-RBI day that helped get the Bruins off on the right foot for the series.
Saturday’s game saw another strong performance from “Mr. Versatile,” Tim Murphy (4-2) who recorded nine strikeouts in seven innings of work to tally another win. Including his relief work last Tuesday against UC Irvine, the sophomore outfielder-pitcher has 14 strikeouts in 9.1 innings on the week.
“Every weekend he seems to be getting stronger out there,” catcher Ryan Babineau said. “He’s worked really hard, especially on the pitching side. He’s becoming a much more well-rounded guy, throwing all his pitches for strikes.”
At the plate, Decker’s home runs in the first and third innings gave the Bruins a big lift and may have gotten under the Bears’ skin. In the bottom of the eighth, Decker was hit by a pitch, prompting both dugouts to be issued warnings. The following at-bat, Cohen responded with a home run, and when the team came out of the dugout, the heated celebration caused Babineau and Murphy to get ejected from the game.
“They threw at Decker,” Babineau said. “Cohen hit the home run, and I’m just sticking up for my teammate. That was all there was to it. I did what I thought was right and stood up for my teammate.”
Babineau was back for Sunday’s game, but Murphy having already been taken out of the game Saturday before getting tossed, was forced to sit out Sunday.
In the final game of the series, nothing seemed to go right for UCLA. As opposed to one catastrophic inning for the Bruins, the Bears consistently built up their lead, watching only three innings go by without scoring a run.
UCLA starter Gavin Brooks (3-6) was tagged with the loss, lasting only 3.1 innings and giving up seven runs. The Bruins went through a total of seven pitchers on the afternoon, including redshirt sophomore Jason Zinser, who made his regular season debut.
“It’s one day and we didn’t do much right, and they got us pretty good,” Savage said.
“But the bottom line is that we’re 2-1 on the weekend. In the big picture I’m pleased with how we did and how we competed. But today we didn’t get it done.”
UCLA will play at Pepperdine this Tuesday before playing No. 2 Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz., next weekend.